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Will I be able to Remove my wings Solo ?

R

Rhrjr64

I'm New Here
My plan is to trailer home from A very close Grass Strip, saving Hanger costs and not having to carry cherry cans past the fuel truck , I understand the 912 prefers auto fuel over 100LL, the FBO guys won't like it though.Without being at least A fuel customer Ill be trying to get my wings off by myself
 
Can't do it by yourself unless you can devise a dolly like used on a glider wing.
 
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Jetguy said:
Can't do it by yourself unless you can devise a dolly like used on a glided wing.
Click to expand...

And the problem after that is getting it into a cradle or storage fixture.

Sad to say, it is a two person job unless you're OK walking a tightrope every time where one slip and...
 
Here is an untried idea. Attach heavy duty drawer slides to the trailer. Park the RV-12 near the trailer so that the wing tip is under an extended drawer slide. Pull the wing out 3 feet from the fuselage and tie the wing tip hand hold to the drawer slide with rope. Walk to the wing root and pull the wing out the rest of the way. Rotate the wing 90 degrees and carry the heavy end to the trailer and set into a wing rack. Someone can probably come up with a better idea. I know that Don Schwanke made a dolly for his wings.
Joe Gores
 
Even if easily trailerable, you will soon get tired of spending a half hour or more removing or installing wings, unless you get really good at it. Van's employees can remove and replace the wings in 4 minutes. It takes me 40 minutes just to put them back on.
Joe Gores
 
I have had mine on and off twice all by myself. The glider people do it all the time, and I borrowed a dolly idea from them. If you want to go back in my kitlog, you can see photos of how it works. Since I was all alone, photos are not as many as I would have liked to have.
I agree with others though, taking them off and on routinely would not be what I would wish for.
 
Yes you can remove the wings solo. I got the system from a regular poster on this forum. It takes a bit longer say 10 minutes by yourself. It is such a good system and is safer when combined with a second person who is unfamiliar. To reinstall the wing bolt get a tube expander and you will cut the job down to a few minutes.
Cheers Julian 120316
 
Tube expander

Julian
What is a tube expander please? I only put the wings on once. Should I take them off annually and spray with silicone where they slide in? Had a hard time. And what is a tube expander ?
Tim
 
J.Coles said:
Yes you can remove the wings solo. I got the system from a regular poster on this forum. It takes a bit longer say 10 minutes by yourself. It is such a good system and is safer when combined with a second person who is unfamiliar. To reinstall the wing bolt get a tube expander and you will cut the job down to a few minutes.
Cheers Julian 120316
Click to expand...
Can you describe the method? Or pics?
 
Single-handed installation using sawhorses

I have installed wings solo using the sawhorses normally used to raise the fuselage. I had the wings stored on a standard "sling" wing dolly. I placed one sawhorse parallel with the fuse, centered on the spar slot, a foot from the fuse. The second sawhorse was similarly positioned, about 12 feet from the fuselage. I positioned the wing dolly such that I could first lift the wing spar on the inner sawhorse, and then lift the wing tip, rotating 90 degrees, and placing on the outer sawhorse, With a little back-and-forth shimmying, the end of the wing spare is placed into its slot, and the inside sawhorse removed. After a bit more shimmying and persuadeing, the pins can be inserted for the left wing, and the process repeated for the right wing. The biggest problem is that you are flying blind--can 't see the end of the spar to get it properly aligned, so a lot of walking back and forth is involved--taking about 15 minutes. I haven't tried to remove the wings solo, bu the process should be reversible.
 
Your plane may NOT require a tube expander! Mine does not. Just a little wiggling by the guy at the end of the wing and the pin slides right in. (2 person job.) Try it without first. Also, it uses a light GREASE on those pins, not silicone. Check the manual.

The main difficulty people have in re-installing the wings is having to compress the wing-skin-to-fuselage-skin gasket. Be sure your wing skins are trimmed properly for that.

Also check for flaperon skin rubbing on the fuselage.

And check that the fuselage WING SLOT opening has been cut tall enough (top and bottom) so that it is not rubbing when you reinsert the wings.
 
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You put both wings in. So, the two holes with bearings in each spar SHOULD line up with each other and with the bearings in the structural member, so the two pins slide in easily. Well, maybe they don't. Maybe they are a tiny bit off (usually because of that fuselage gasket!) You put the pipe expander in on one side, as if it was a pin. It starts out slightly smaller than the hole left by slightly mis-aligned holes. Then you expand it.

That forces all those holes to line up. Well, if they line up on one side, they will be lined up on the other - so the other pin will slide right in. With it in, you remove the expander and easily slide in the second pin where it was.
 
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Read Bill H's two advice items above. The tube-expander method works very well for me. Be gentle though, one doesn't want to accidentily over-expand the spar pin holes.
 
Poor man's tube expander

My wings were difficult to install after the seal strips went on the fuselage sides even though the gap between the wing skins and fuselage was as per the plans. As the wings were painted I didn't want to do any surgery on them, so I came up with this cheap (very) homemade `tube expander' to ease the wings into position. Took about five minutes to make the wedges out of a broom handle, cut up an old silicone sealant tube and find a suitable timber spacer to go between the wedges. Made it easy to line up the bushings without damaging them and tap the pins in with a rubber mallet. Thought it might be worth posting in case anyone else has a similar problem.

15118250484_9c2f3c04ce_z_d.jpg


15118250744_fc1ac80ceb_z_d.jpg
 
Rhrjr64 said:
My plan is to trailer home from A very close Grass Strip, saving Hanger costs and not having to carry cherry cans past the fuel truck , I understand the 912 prefers auto fuel over 100LL, the FBO guys won't like it though.Without being at least A fuel customer Ill be trying to get my wings off by myself
Click to expand...

Bob, I sent you a Private Message
 
Mich48041 said:
Pipe Expander
I have the small size. It works but is shorter than I would like it to be. Has anyone tried the medium size?
Joe Gores
Click to expand...

I tried the 1.5 in one that O'reillys auto sells - I think it is the medium size that HF sells - it won't work for me - just off enough.

The small HF one with some grease works great for me.
 
While the wings CAN be pulled off and installed by one person it seems the measures necessary are well beyond routine. I am lucky enough to have a hangar, so I don't remove them unless necessary for a mod or inspection. It seems like a feature that is not really practical for many owners.
 
I don't intend removing the wings often, but having the ability to do so easily is one of the really good features of the -12 IMO.
 
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